Many project management office (PMO) consultants, program managers, and project managers will tell you, “Yes, many projects and programs have unrealistic and inflexible deadlines.” Many of them have been assigned to so many projects at once that, without time management, efficiency has become a thing of the past. Managing multiple projects, competing priorities, and tight deadlines is everyday work for many corporate employees. Have you ever had a chance to step back, think, and find a way to be proactive? Guess what? This isn’t going to change anytime soon. So we shouldn’t overlook the reasons why some projects fail. In this article, we’ll help you identify the causes and suggest solutions for your next project.
1 Overburdened resources: Resources have a funny way of disappearing just when you need them most. With people, you’ll find that team members end up stretched beyond their capacity in many directions. It’s important to have a task list and an agreed timeline from each person, so you spend less time directing and more time giving people the freedom to manage their own time. With software and hardware, plan well ahead and acquire what you need before you actually need it.
Key message: “Know what you need and when you need it, and plan accordingly.”
2 Overly detailed project plan: So you go to the trouble of drawing up an excellent project plan with every nitty-gritty detail, down to tasks in one- to two-hour increments, and management rewards you for your eye for detail. Then what? In practice, a plan like this often becomes overhead that gets in the way of your routine work and clogs the process itself. With so much going on, you might never find the time to update the plan you built so meticulously. By the time you get around to it, it might be badly out of date, and you’ll need to spend even more time getting it back into shape. There are good reasons to keep a good, up-to-date plan. So what do we mean by good? Clear, with no mess and no fuss, and with just enough detail to manage your particular project. Don’t fall into the trap of adding detail for its own sake. You’ll regret it.
Key message: “Keep it simple.”
3 The right stakeholders aren’t involved: You might see stakeholders as a necessary evil, but without their involvement, it’s much harder to bring the project to a successful conclusion. And how many people know how to identify and involve the right stakeholders? Like everything else in a project, stakeholders can change too. You need a way to identify the right stakeholders, decide how involved each one should be, and agree on roles and responsibilities.
Key message: “Make sure the right stakeholders are involved at all times.”
4 Inefficient process: Issue logs, risk logs, and status reports are old school. Project management has become far more sophisticated than that. But what if elaborate processes (designed, of course, to make projects failproof) keep you from leading the project and make you a victim of the process instead? What if an inflexible process keeps you from analyzing what your project really needs and forces you to follow it regardless of the project’s type or size, just for consistency’s sake? Exactly.
Key message: “Identify waste, and don’t be afraid to recommend how the company could become more efficient without it.”
5 Ineffective change control: Whether you’re new to project management or a veteran, you’ve probably been warned about the dangers of the infamous scope creep, one type of change control issue. From stakeholder communication to scope, a project goes through countless changes. This is where a project grows arms and legs and becomes completely unmanageable. It’s one of the biggest reasons why projects fail, and the worst part is that everything usually appears to be under control. You accept a change request to do a little extra work, then another, and then another. Before you know it, milestones have slipped and the entire piece of work is in danger. You need a change control process that defines what, who, and how. Make sure you communicate it to stakeholders and team members, and agree on how changes will be managed.
Key message: “Pay attention to change control.”
At Trayix, we strongly believe in effective planning, stakeholder management, and control. We also encourage effective risk and issue management. If you need help with program management, contact us.